Did the Nazis have access to penicillin during the war?

by peridot331

I watched Der Untergang last night as it was mentioned in a discussion on this subreddit. Schenck, a doctor and SS officer, was told to bring penicillin and supplies to a hospital. Was this just an error in the script?

restricteddata

They had laboratory penicillin, but could not produce it in industrial quantities during the war. They attempted to develop methods to do so but failed. So I would say: error in the script.

If you are interested in the gritty details of the failed German attempt to develop penicillin, there is a lot here: Gilbert Shama and Jonathan Reinarz, "Allied intelligence reports on wartime German penicillin research and production," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 32, no. 2 (2002), 347-367. I can send you (or anyone else) a copy if desired. The authors conclude that if the Germans had been more coordinated in their effort they probably could have pulled it off, but the work, as with several other German projects, was marred by a lack of cooperation. Curiously (to my mind) the authors compare it with the similarly unsuccessful uranium project of the Germans. Their final paragraph:

It is said that the [Anglo-American] effort expended in chemically synthesizing penicillin was compared to that deployed in the Manhattan project. But the comparison fails not only in order of magnitude, but also in time. The Manhattan Project met its objectives in time, chemical synthesis was achieved only after the war. A more persuasive comparison can be made between the German nuclear and penicillin programs. Analyzing technical reports compiled after the defeat of Germany, [Mark] Walker concluded that German nuclear research had been conducted along lines similar to American work, but on a much smaller scale.[*] His observation regarding scale applies to German penicillin work. However, the [Allied intelligence] reports show that the research itself often unnecessarily duplicated work taking place elsewhere within Germany and that it rarely reached the standard of the best Anglo-American work. The German research workers eventually realized that a coordinated effort would be needed to achieve mass production. Professor Paul Rostock called a meeting to address this issue in Berlin in October 1944 and acted as chairman. Öppinger was present and gave his assessment of it to Bickel. "A committee was formed, with Konrad Bernhauer of Stuttgart as leader, to coordinate the activities of the various groups—but it was all a farce with no prospect of advance. By the time of that meeting, we could get no yeast, no acids, no supplies or materials. It was all over."

* (I think this somewhat misrepresents what Walker was saying, even in the section they cited, as an aside. Some of the reports Walker talks about make this claim, but Walker does not totally go along with it.)